In general, any semiconductor component, for instance a diode, or a transistor such as an IGFET (Insulated Gate Field Effect Transistor) like a MOSFET (Metal Oxide Field Effect Transistor) or an IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) has a semiconductor body. During the production and/or the operation of the semiconductor component, cracks can occur and propagate in the semiconductor body. For instance, if a number of semiconductor components are produced in a common wafer and subsequently separated from one another (i.e. singulated) e.g. by dicing or other techniques, such cracks can emanate from the separation line. Also mechanical strain, for instance caused by different CTEs (CTE=Coefficient of Thermal Expansion) of different materials used in a semiconductor component or by different CTEs of the semiconductor component and a substrate carrying the semiconductor component can lead to cracks in the semiconductor component.
Due to such a crack, a semiconductor component may be defective as soon as the crack occurs, or become defective over the course of time as the crack propagates in the semiconductor body. Hence, there is a need for avoiding problems caused by cracks in a semiconductor component.